MCC 2012

FORUM

BULGARIA

NEUROSCIENCE, REHABILITATION, & POLICY

 

FROM BASIC MOTOR CONTROL TO FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY:

INTERNATIONAL HEATH CARE PERSPECTIVES ON

NEUROSCIENCE-INFORMED DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT

 

 

 

 

Our main goal is to contribute significantly to the development in the area of Quality Life of at this Forum.

Studies on Motor Control, i.e. the neural control of Posture and Movement, have occupied positions of importance in physiology, psychology clinical neurology and physical medicine for over a century. Despite this multidisciplinary focus, the general processes involved in the transformation from a desired movement to appropriate patterns of muscle activation, are not yet all known.

The "mysterious function" of the different structures of the brain responsible for the interaction between posture and movements has received a considerable attention for the last hundred years of experimental and theoretical studies

However, the knowledge about how we plan and initiate movements, how we keep them going and how we are able to terminate the ongoing movements still remains to be broadened

 

How the Brain can cope with existing internal and external constraints of the body itself to produce a skillful movement was and remains a challenging problem for the scientists in the field of MOTOR CONTROL

 

How wonderful it is to witness a child make its first independent steps then make a stop and smile reaching out with its arms!

How wonderful it is to trace the grace of ballerina movements, challenging gravity forces! How we want to be able to assist and improve the daily activity of movement of disabled people!

    How we want to help elderly people to adapt to their age-induced conditions!

 

The goal of studies of NEURAL CONTROL OF POSTURE AND MOVEMENT i.e. MOTOR CONTROL is to transform our admiration for human movements into knowledge of how desired movement pattern is generated and achieved.

During the last years the interest has shifted from studying how simple movements are being organized to Natural Goal-Directed whole-body Movements control and corresponding body posture and equilibrium control.

Considerable amount of attention has been directed to the transformation of sensory inputs into motor commands. The Relation between structure and function in the Brain mainly how the Brain controls the limbs in voluntary movements is still an open question. With the years the Principles underlying the organization of Initiation and termination of discrete and cyclic movements have become an attractive topic to be addressed keeping in mind that the most important thing is to be able to initiate and then to terminate smoothly the planned movement in space. In our daily life interacting with the environment is performed by Reach to Grasp Movements a topic in Motor Control, which is attracting the attention of many researchers. Then when we are in a situation of impaired body posture and compromise movements it became very important to address Mechanisms for disturbed Physiology and Pathophysiology of Balance and movement coordination and to study them in greater detail. As a way to improve the conditions and adapt patient with movement disorders to daily life activities we can elaborate and propose Rehabilitation strategies for motor control recovery as an output of research of posture and motor coordination. Integration of posture and movement in animals, in humans and impaired posturo-kinetic coordination resulting from different pathology remains a fundamental question to be addressed.

 

13 Years after initiating the First Motor Control Conference MCC1999, the main Goal of the Healthcare Forum is to continue on the paved way offering, and now addressing How to Move Knowledge related to Motor Control from Theoretical to Clinical points of Application